Puerto Rico

Stop jerking them around America! Either make them a state or cut them loose!

by Anonymous

reply 18

05/09/2013

Puerto Rico will never be integrated into America, just as Hawai'i never will be.

by Anonymous

reply 1

05/08/2013

Puerto Rico doesn't want statehood

by Anonymous

reply 2

05/08/2013

R2 Not true

[quote]In an overshadowed Election Day contest, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood in a nonbinding referendum, marking the first time such an initiative garnered a majority.

by Anonymous

reply 3

05/08/2013

Always a hurricane blowing. Always the population growing.

by Anonymous

reply 4

05/08/2013

[quote] Always a hurricane blowing. Always the population growing.

And the money owing. And the babies crying. And the bullets flying.

by Anonymous

reply 5

05/08/2013

They already speak English as well as the people of Texas.

by Anonymous

reply 6

05/08/2013

R7 Because unless they become a state, they dont have representation in Congress.

by Anonymous

reply 9

05/08/2013

Why bother? Don't all of them live in NY now?

by Anonymous

reply 10

05/08/2013

Let it sink back in the ocean! Always the population growing! Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

by Anonymous

reply 11

05/08/2013

If they do become a state we'll have to order a lot of additional suck tents!

by Anonymous

reply 12

05/08/2013

[quote]Because unless they become a state, they dont have representation in Congress.

Why should they get representation before the people who live in Washington, DC get it?

by Anonymous

reply 13

05/08/2013

R3, your perspective is very misled and misguided. Do not take everything you read/hear in sound bite form in U.S. news at face value.

The referendum in Puerto Rico was highly manipulated by the then in power pro-statehood government to yield the results it did. They are no longer in power for laying off tens of thousands - and precisely for continuously pulling misrepresentative stuff like that last referendum, which no serious U.S. leadership would ever consider as a fair representation of the people's vote.

So:

On the first half of the ballot - clearly knowing that there are three, maybe four, alternatives to the status of the Island, the question asked was "do you want our current status to remain?" The results of that question showed that about 58% of the people wanted change. What it didn't show was how many of those wanted statehood vs independence vs a mutation of the current status that leans towards even more autonomy.

THEN on the second part of the ballot they had the gall to state INDEPENDENT OF WHAT YOUR ANSWER WAS TO THE PREVIOUS QUESTION, what other alternative would you favor for the island? Three were listed, none of them the current one.

So what most U.S. papers fail to report is that over 40% of the voters left this question unanswered, maybe as a boycott or perhaps more obviously, because their preferred status was not listed as a choice. So in this instance, the statehood advocates were able to claim 60% of the vote.

In matters of status referendum, things have to be approved by over two thirds of the population for any changes to be seriously considered.

The manipulated results do not even reach those proportions - and if current commonwealth status had been offered as a choice in the second question, it would have looked even more dismal for the statehood people.

The Obama administration and US senate are very well aware of what was done here - mainly taking advantage of pro-independence and pro-statehood opposition to gang up against pro status quo support in the first question, and then freeze out the pro-status quo people altogether from the second question.

It won't work. especially because the government in power now is a liberal Democratic government which happens to support status quo and lean towards autonomy.

by Anonymous

reply 14

05/08/2013

So 35% (60% of 60%) favored statehood under the hypothetical that the present situation could not be maintained, even though a flat out 58% majority said they preferred the current system. And since 20% favored the current system but answered the hypothetical, support for statehood could possbilty be as low as 15%

by Anonymous

reply 15

05/09/2013

r13, Puerto Ricans don't care about representation. Their concern is welfare checks and food stamps arriving on the first of the month.

by Anonymous

reply 16

05/09/2013

r6 there's a town in Texas where all government business is conducted in Spanish. Anyone remember name of the town?

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